I was immediately struck by the title of Haley Stewart’s non-fiction book that reads in full Jane Austen’s Genius Guide to Life on Love, Friendship, and Becoming the Person God Created You to Be. As a true Janeite (an enthusiastic admirer of Jane Austen’s writings) and a born-again Christian I knew I had to read this book and thankfully NetGalley generously granted All Things Jane Austen a PDF copy to review.

What I read was terrific. Haley’s premise is that we can look to Ms. Jane Austen as our life coach when dealing with day to day social and personal challenges. Even thought Jane Austen lived and wrote in the 1800s, her characters and stories still resonate with us today and are relevant in many regards. Just look at all the movies and musicals and books based on Jane Austen’s works?

Haley Stewart does a great job covering all of Jane Austen’s beloved novels and heroines from Anne Elliot (Persuasion) who demonstrated “vulnerable fortitude in the storms of life” to Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) who learns to “address the pride in [her] own heart through the cultivation of humility”.

As Haley points out in the beginning of her book, Jane Austen may not “preach” but she expertly illustrates virtue and vice in everyday life. This same virtue and vice can be found in today’s world hence making Jane Austen’s books and stories a timeless lesson for us all.

This book would make for a great devotional or better yet as a guide for your next book club reading. Consider perhaps reading this non-fiction book alongside all of Jane Austen’s novels. You could easily dig deep and make this a six month book club challenge or focus on the Haley Stewart book alone over the course of a month.

Again, my thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for review. All opinions are my own.

FULL REVIEW at https://allthingsjaneausten.info/jane-austens-genius-guide-to-life/

“The finest novelist,” "moral philosopher,” and “sharp social commentator” were just three ways Haley Stewart described one of my favorite writers of all time, Jane Austen. Her added appellation though is the topic of this book: life coach.
In Jane Austen’s Genius Guide to Life, Stewart invited a reading of the Regency author’s life and novels through the lens of faith and philosophy. She wrote on how Austen employed her stories to provide insight and advice on what it looks like to have a strong moral compass, avoid vice, and live the virtuous life.
Austen’s father had served as rector for various Anglican parishes. Stewart quoted philosopher Dr. Cornel West here who said that made Austen a “preacher’s kid.” She compared Austen’s masterpieces to “snow globes.” Her novels have a small setting, limited characters, and rich stories that delve deeply into common moral dilemmas and universal truths.
Austen would have studied the classics, including Aristotle and Dante’s Divine Comedy, alongside her brothers and the students her father taught as well. A Catholic author, Stewart connected the seven cardinal sins and seven virtues to Austen’s heroes. She talked about how these philosophical works influenced Austen’s writing, with added insights literary critiques from G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, American philosopher Dr. Cornel West, and German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper.
The research really took me back to graduate school. I still love finding new interpretations of old texts, so she held my interest from the first chapter. I enjoyed Stewart’s take on Austen as a life coach in general and tracked well with her thoughts on how the author employed the joy of reading a story to encourage virtuous living. She showed where characters like Elizabeth Bennett, Emma Woodhouse, Marianne Dashwood, and Catherine Morland let their vices cloud their judgment. They then pivoted and experienced moments of undeception. Elinor Dashwood, Fanny Price, and Anne Elliot showed readers what virtuous living looks like, especially how to endure in times of suffering.
I requested to read this advance reader copy because of my love of all things Jane Austen. I loved Stewart’s writing style. She used personal stories and humor, along with these alliterative moments in her writing. Before she delved into the Austen’s novels, she first gave a brief historical journey through Jane’s life. I enjoyed Stewart’s reflections on reading Austen’s novels going from her first reading of Pride & Prejudice on an audio book in the backseat of the car to arguing with a man about Austen’s greatness at a bookstore. We could be BFFs for sure.
I did think some areas didn't connect well as evidence of Jane Austen as life coach. The book at times read like a dissertation. That's not a bad thing, but I think she wrote more generally for those interested in Jane Austen and Catholic readers in particular. Stewart went back to Dante's works, for example, or talked about Our Lady, Mary, as a source for virtuous living at times that seemed like a secondary conversation. It left the path that had Austen novels as our guide. I did appreciate the novel synopses and information about the adaptations. And I do think this is a wonderful resource for those studying Austen for the first time or as a refresher.
Thank you, Netgalley and Ave Maria Press, for providing this free advanced reader e-copy of this book.

Imagining Austen as a life coach, author Haley Stewart uses each of Austen's six novels and demonstrates the work in growing in different virtues each provides. Having already read Austen's works will likely help you better understand Stewart's arguments, and examples; she does provide enough background about the stories that even an Austen novice could read and enjoy this book. There are also two appendixes which provide even more information about characters and plot points.
The idea of growing in virtue has its roots in Christianity, but Stewart also does very good job here making the information approachable and the lessons universal. I would recommend this book to anyone interesting in looking deeper in beloved literature to see what it may have to teach you about living a fuller life.

I love Jane Austen and while I'm not at all religious (lapsed Anglican if anything) I quite enjoyed dipping into this book, mainly because the author's love for Austen's novels really springs from the page and makes it very readable. Ultimately, the fact this is coming from a strong Christian perspective meant that it wasn't for me and I didn't finish reading it, but for those who have an interest in both Christianity and literature, I think this would be a very enjoyable read.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This book is an invaluable resource to go along with the reading of Jane Austen, either for a seasoned Janeite, or for someone who is completely new to her work. Haley's love for Jane Austen very clearly shines through, and her passion, along with just the right mix of anecdote and serious considerations, makes it very readable and enjoyable, and can certainly ignite the passion of a reader.

I also love the amount to which she weaves in other elements of the Catholic tradition and Catholic literary tradition--Dante, Lewis, Chesterton, Waugh, and various Marian titles. It's very clearly a unified Catholic lens for viewing Austen's works, which works quite well, in my opinion. But I don't think that makes it inaccessible for a non-Catholic or even non-Christian, either.

The book is structured with a chapter each for each of Austen's finished works, and then one at the end about love, which was the perfect conclusion. Each chapter focused on a virtue within the book, and how it's displayed--or not--by various characters. It was a remarkable one-ness of focus that held each chapter and the book together in a wonderful way. And each of the virtues did challenge me and convicted me to a greater or lesser degree. There's a lot for me to work on!

Most impressively of all, she made me want to read Mansfield Park, which is a minor miracle...

This is definitely one that I'll be revisiting (and stealing my mom's coming copy...)!

I'm familiar with Haley Stewart from when she was blogging a decade ago. I'm also an avid Austen fan. So when I saw she had written a book about faith and Jane Austen, I couldn't not read it. In this guide, Stewart examines "how Jane Austen explores the cardinal and theological virtues as well as the seven deadly sins and their corresponding lively virtues to show us how to become the people God has designed us to be."

Although Catholicism isn't my faith tradition, I found the premise intriguing and fairly well executed. The content has a more academic paper vibe than a traditional self-help or spiritual formation book, which could be unappealing to some. I enjoyed her insights, but found myself needing to force myself to read this one at times.

Delightful book, looking at Austen's novels considering the traditional virtues and how the characters in each focus on one of them. After looking at this, the author relates it to other great works, molly Dante and to Marian theology.

For folks not familiar with Austen's six novels there is an appendix with summaries of each. Other additional material includes a suggested reading list and study questions.

I really loved this short book.

Fans of Jane Austen will love this book. As someone making her way through the classics. It was interesting to glean life lessons from Jane Austen's collection.

<i>The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!</i>

This book is best geared to a pretty specific audience: Catholic fans of Jane Austen. As an Austen-lover who has also enjoyed blog posts written by Stewart, I was pretty psyched about this book. I feel as though Stewart's voice really shined through, and I enjoyed her take on Austen's novels and how they illustrate various virtues (and can help us grow in virtues as well). I was tickled by the idea of Jane Austen as a "life coach". Stewart claims you don't need to have read all of Austen's novels to benefit from the book, and she includes summaries of each novel in the appendix for the curious. While it's probably true you don't NEED to have read them beforehand (and could actually be inspired to read or re-read the novels), I think I enjoyed this book more having read the novels ahead of time. Non-Catholics who enjoy philosophy studies may also find the book interesting, though there are Marian references in each chapter. The author also references her life in relation to the novels and highlighted virtues, so there is a slight emphasis on motherhood (which I can't relate to). Overall, this book both enlightened and entertained me.

The title if what captured me. Anything based in Jane Austen is bound to a page turner. Jane Austen's Genius Guide to Life was just that. Each chapter offers a subject, a comparison to one of Jane Austen's novels, and then how you can apply what is learned to your daily life.

I enjoyed and learned from what I read. My only critique is that the chapters and the books introductions could get long. The introduction offers an explanation on why the author wrote the book and why she chose Jane Austen. But as I was reading I felt like the introduction was longer than it needed to be. Additionally, when you break down the chapters the information can get overwhelming. As if it could be simplified.

However, I love the book. When you think about the principles and lessons they are fascinating and real. I enjoyed it.

A delightful book with an interesting premise of giving Us good advices and lessons that We can found in Jane Austen's stories. I love Jane's books, So Haley did a great job showing the detaisl about Jane's strong faith in her novels. Well done!

Jane Austen meets faith is always a book I will sign up for.

I enjoyed that each of Jane Austen's books were focused on, rather than only a few as so often happens.

I'm not Catholic so I couldn't appreciate that aspect of it, but the more general Christian themes and applications were done well and I would definitely give this book as a gift to my Catholic friends.

I jumped at the opportunity to get an ARC of this new book by Haley Stewart to review. I love Jane Austen and this is a book for anyone who loves her writing, wants to be introduced to it, or wants to delve more deeply into these books that have captured imagination for generations after their publication. Realizing I had not yet read all of Austen's writing, I binge-read the novels I had not yet read as I read Haley's book, which made reading this Genius Guide all the more enriching (and also got me ahead of the inevitable spoilers in Haley's book!) I enjoyed Haley's insights into each novel and how Austen manages to illustrate virtue and vice in everyday life while still being highly entertaining. Who knew a 19th century novelist could serve as a 21st century life coach?

This book could be used, alongside Austen's novels, as a fantastic book club guide. I can see book clubs doing six months on Jane Austen by reading one novel every month and then reading and discussing the chapter in Haley's Genius Guide that covers that book. There are discussion questions for each chapter at the end, a synopsis of each Austen novel, and a recommendation list for the best Austen movie adaptations.

This book is a great read and also a great gift for any literature lover in your life. I highly recommend it.

I received an ARC of, Jane Austen's Genius Guide to Life, by Haley Stewart. As a Catholic and a fan of Jane Austen, I really enjoyed this book. I love how she meshed Jane Austen's characters and life with the Catholic faith.

My admiration for Jane Austen's Genius Guide to Life begins with the title. I have long been a fan of the author Austen, who is known best for her seminal work Pride & Prejudice. I agree that Austen is a genius, and I am quite interested in her guide to life.

Author Haley Stewart, also an admirer of Austen, has produced a work as lovely as a carriage ride through the English countryside. She begins with the brilliant premise that we can look to Austen as a life coach, helping us to navigate the social and personal challenges which confront us each day.

Stewart uses examples from Austen's novels to show us how to cultivate virtues such as humility and prudence. Her character explorations are spot-on. In her winsome way, she brings these characters to life for a modern audience.

Stewart also provides a helpful synopsis of each of Austen's books to help readers who may not be familiar with the breadth of the British novelist's works. This would be the perfect book for the Austen fan in your life!

this one was just alright. it's catholic based so if that's not your thing, then maybe skip this one? jane austen is a classic, OBVIOUSLY. but i dunno. it didn't hit me where i needed it to ya know?